UK watchdog alleges price-fixing in bra market

The Office of Fair Trading has alleged three of the UK’s top department stores colluded with manufacturer DB Apparel UK to fix the price of products within sports bra brand Shock Absorber’s range. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Britain’s three biggest department stores colluded with a garment manufacturer to fix the price of one of the nation’s leading sports bra brands, the UK competition watchdog alleged today.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) alleged that manufacturer DB Apparel UK Limited entered into nine anti-competitive agreements with department stores John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser between 2008 and 2011.

It believes they infringed competition law by entering into resale price maintenance agreements that set a fixed or minimum resale price on numerous products within the Shock Absorber sports bra range on a nationwide basis.

The OFT said that during the three years in question the Shock Absorber range had a market share of about 15 per cent.

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